Mobile Ministry Magazine

Apologies for the post out of sync with the usual posting schedule, but after reading the Washington Posts' views on the Pope's message, I figured that a response from MMM would be most appropriate.

To those who have been following Mobile Ministry Magazine, you know that we've always advocated the use of technology (mobile and web computing) when it intersects with the daily interactions that we have with life around us. Whether that daily interaction is person-to-person, person(s)-to-community, or personal devotions, there's a response to the intersection of faith and technology that's demanded as part of the context of the times that we live in. There doesn't need to be an official statement from anyone on it - this is the DNA of walking in this Christian faith.

That being said, the challenge is to walk not in the ways of others when it comes to the use of this technology. We are defined by our intense love for God and one another - therefore we model our use of this technology after that, not in light of what others are doing.

Personally, I think that its great that others in the Body are coming around to understanding mobile and web technology. However, to just understand it now, and then dive in without understanding of its implications is foolhardy. There's nothing worse than when the Body of Christ puts on something and it looks like a bad copy of what someone else has already done. And then cannot account for the consequences of that display or presentation. We've got to model not just contextual use, but continual maturity.

I'd like to believe that pastors/layleaders have the shared spiritual and technical understanding to use this tech - but history present and past dictates that not being the case. Those are who enabled in the Body to teach spiritual truths need to come up beside those who are technically able to use the tools of this age and together build on our faith. Sorry, we can't wait for a generation of pastors to come forth who have this shared knowledge - it will be too late.

The voice of Christ will remain constant and truthful in every generation that earnestly seeks Him and His Kingdom. On this site, we've espoused this in our asking of you to take a look at your lives at the intersections of faith and mobile technology. We've already responded to the call and demonstrated the ability He's endowed us with. The next steps are to enable others to preach, teach, and live this Gospel. Anything short of that is just a bad attempt at secular marketing.

Note:
This post is based on the message recently shared by Pope Benedict XVI at the 44th World Communications Day event and the resulting article at the Washington Post (via Smart Mobs).

Labels: devotion, discipliship, faith, innovation, mobility, tech, Web

Via The Digital Sanctuary:

Dallas Theological Seminary’s Center for Christian Leadership is hosting Shane Hipps, author of Flickering Pixels (my review), for a one day conference in Dallas called The Electronic Gospel: How Technology Shapes Our Faith on February 8th, 2010... John Dyer will lead one on controlling technology in our daily lives, Scott McClellan of Collide Magazine will lead a session on social media, and Bill Buchanan of Irving Bible Church will lead one on technology in the worship service.

This looks like a great conference. Don't see MMM going as there's a scheduling conflict (and poor planning on my part), but we will try and get some coverage of it from various vantage points.

For more information and to register, visit the The Electronic Gospel: How Technology Shapes Our Faith website.

Labels: conferences, faith, How Tech Shapes Faith, information technology, social networking, tech, worship

Let's start off this year on the right foot with a simple question (reposted from MMM's Twitter actually)

How does mobile change the behavior of living out the message in between the Sundays?

Since Time Online is calling 2010 the year of the mobile - maybe I was two years early in my prediction - this would be an apt question with which to frame our thoughts behind mobile/web use and how our faith is shaped with/by it.

Labels: communication, community, faith, mobility

Hate is a pretty strong word; but, you cannot deny that in many faiths, recent computer tech advances have pretty much had their share of being panned by pretty much everyone.

Over at the Open Gardens (Futuretext) blog, a question was posed and answers attempted towards the question of the resistance to social networking tech in religious circles.

Now, I don't agree with many of the conclusions in the post, but I will not deny that there is a stretching point that social/mobile technology is causing for religious institutions (as it is everything else). In looking at the intersection of faith and technology, this push-pull is something that we as individuals, communities, and faiths have to ask and address.

Its probably not an issue of hating social networks, but it is one of not knowing how to proceed, and therefore keeping the brakes on where others accelerate.

So where do we go from here? How do we take those steps to understand the tech, and not be reckless embracers of ideals that make core tenants, such as salvation by grace through faith, no longer threads to be reached for?

Labels: community, faith, social networking, tech

Since I first learned about PDAs in 2000, I've been a big advocate of using technonlogy in ways that push the status quo. Especially back then, doing so put me in a position where I was not just misunderstood, but caused a resentment to the adoptions of technology in ways that would have been a huge help to many.

I've since grown from that zealousness (to a degree). And with the starting of MMM in Oct 2004 (we went web in April 2005), the idea that expectations and understanding have to have a common meeting place (Romans 15:1-7) became more real than ever.

To that end, I want to extend a bit of an olive branch to users, developers, marketers, and believers alike. When it comes to finding a suitable place for technology, there are indeed different needs and expectations that we have for our corner of things. We are unique in our lives and what we experince, this will happen. What we lose though is that ability to move forward together when one part of the Body slants their approach or view towards another. These are not the times to go at it as the only keepers of secret knowledge.

Hence I find myself at the four year mark with MMM. I'm constantly trying new things; pushing my own preconceptions in various areas; seeing the connections at times, and missing the obvious markers in others. There's indeed a lot that can layer this life, and on the side of MMM, we've sought to leverage a healthy understanding of mobile technology as a tool within the solution of corporate/communal empowerment.

I'm not sure if MMM has been totally successful in making those bridges though. Just speaking as a leader, there's much we could have done here to pull together publishers and developers better; things we could have done in the parterships we have in terms of enabling more people towards a digital understanding. We've made some successes and failures. Its been something to behold.

That all being said, and reflected upon. Reading this article at Ars Technica just shows me that MMM has a niche towards understanding this tech that others might not. Nah, we aren't flashy (I kinda refuse to be). And though we reach - person to person, website to website - with this goal of just slowly increasing the understanding that this ground - the internet - is useful for ministry and community engagement; we don't want to stop there. The possiblities to better steward all that we have, and present a view of Christ that is unquestionably Him remains our focus.

I've got no clue of how to move forward. I only know that we keep doing so. Through courses, elections, jobs, illness, and whatever else, we just move forward. Hoping that at some point we understand what God meant by allowing us to connect like this, hoping that we'll me Him because we didn't slack in taking the time to connect like this.

Welcome to 4 years of MMM, seeing life at the place where faith and technology intersect. We've got some more understanding and wisdom to grasp if you've got the time to learn with us.

Labels: commentary, community, devotion, education, faith, mobility